This invention relates to the art of air filtration and more particularly, to an improved filter for cleaning the air discharged from a cotton gin, so as to remove from the discharged air, that particulate matter which might contaminate the ambient atmosphere adjacent the gin.
The cotton ginning operation entails the agitation of cotton bolls, such as picked from the cotton plant, to separate the relatively light cotton fibers from the relatively heavier seeds, motes, leaves, and the like non-fibrous plant portions of the cotton boll. In mechanically breaking up the cotton bolls, so as to facilitate separation of these relatively light cotton fibers from the heavier seeds, motes, and leaf particles, it is found that airborne trash comprising dust, lint, fly and the like undesirable particulate matter is thrown into the ambient atmosphere surrounding the gin.
It has long been know, and as more recently recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, the presence of this particulate matter in the atmosphere around the gin contaminates this atmosphere.
Attempts have been made to filter and remove undesired particulate matter from the discharge air from a cotton gin. However, where conventional filtering apparatus is employed, when the filtering medium is of a size having openings small enough to remove contaminating particles, the screen openings of these filters significantly interferes with the flow of air from the gin, particularly when these openings become clogged, as they do, with the relatively large particles normally entrained in the gin discharge airstream. Where the screen openings are of a size to permit free flow of air, contaminating particles are still left in the airstream.